"children. Wong said ""Flower Drum Song"", the musical set in San Francisco’s Chinatown by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, based on the 1957 novel, ""The Flower Drum Song"", by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, “was my life…That was me as a teenage kid.” Wong met Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth on the San Francisco set of the 1948 film noir production, ""The Lady from Shanghai"". Frank Wong Frank Wong (born September 22, 1932) is a San Francisco, California artist who creates miniature dioramas that depict the San Francisco Chinatown of Wong's youth during the 1930s and 1940s. His works include"
"issues such as racism, sexism and classism in many of their works. For example, ""Carousel"" concerns domestic violence, while ""South Pacific"" addresses racism. Based on the true story of the von Trapp family, ""The Sound of Music"" explores the views of Austrians to the takeover of Austria by the Third Reich. Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein refers to composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the"
"work's loss of popularity was due in part to increased racial sensitivity in the U. S. after the civil rights movement. In addition, producers found the show to be thinly plotted, and the songs not integrated as organically with the characters and story, as compared with Rodgers and Hammerstein's most popular musicals. ""Flower Drum Song"" came to be seen by some as stereotypical and patronizing towards Asians, and that it was ""inauthentic, even offensive in its relentlessly upbeat picture of a big-city Chinatown"". In 1983, the announcement that it would be produced in San Francisco started a furor; the producers"
"in 1943; it was Rodgers and Hammerstein's first work together and a massive hit. Soon after ""Oklahoma!"" opened, Rodgers began considering the idea of a musical set backstage at a theatre staging a musical. The production could explore different areas of the backstage world. Rodgers also saw it as the opportunity to write a pure musical comedy, without the serious themes which had marked their early works—such as the attacks on racism in ""South Pacific"", and the cultural tolerance in ""The King and I"". Hammerstein was initially unenthusiastic, thinking the subject matter trivial, but Rodgers pressed the matter. It was"
"that Chao's role, though diminished in the musical, nevertheless gives it some of its darkest moments, and she serves much the same purpose as Jud Fry: to be, in Hammerstein's words, ""the bass fiddle that gives body to the orchestration of the story"". Though the new story was less artistically adventurous than the earlier Rodgers and Hammerstein hits, it was innovative, even daring in its treatment of Asian-Americans, ""an ethnic group that had long been harshly caricatured and marginalized in our mainstream pop culture."" Act I: Wang Ta, a young Chinese-American man living in his father's house in San Francisco's"
"Small Hotel"", ""Where or When"", ""My Funny Valentine"", ""The Lady Is a Tramp"", ""Falling in Love with Love"", ""Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"", and ""Wait till You See Her"". In 1939, he wrote the ballet ""Ghost Town"" for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with choreography by Marc Platoff. Rodgers' partnership with Hart began having problems because of the lyricist's unreliability and declining health. Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom he had previously written songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hit ""Oklahoma!"" (1943), marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in"
"romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs ""If I Loved You"", ""June Is Bustin' Out All Over"" and ""You'll Never Walk Alone"". Richard Rodgers later wrote that ""Carousel"" was his favorite of all his musicals. Following the spectacular success of the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, ""Oklahoma!"" (1943), the pair sought to collaborate on another piece, knowing that any resulting work would be compared with ""Oklahoma!"", most likely unfavorably. They were initially reluctant to seek the rights to ""Liliom""; Molnár had refused permission for the work to be adapted in the past, and the original"
"that recur throughout the work to connect the music and story. A fifteen-minute ""dream ballet"" reflects Laurey's struggle with her feelings about two men, Curly and Jud. By the early 1940s, Rodgers and Hammerstein were each well known for creating Broadway hits with other collaborators. Rodgers, with Lorenz Hart, had produced over two dozen musicals since the 1920s, including such popular successes as ""Babes in Arms"" (1937), ""The Boys from Syracuse"" (1938) and ""Pal Joey"" (1940). Among other successes, Hammerstein had written the words for ""Rose-Marie"" (1924), ""The Desert Song"" (1926), ""The New Moon"" (1927) and ""Show Boat"" (1927). Though"
"a father, Wang Chi-yang, a wealthy refugee from China, who clings to traditional values in San Francisco's Chinatown. Rodgers and Hammerstein shifted the focus of the musical to his son, Wang Ta, who is torn between his Chinese roots and assimilation into American culture. The team hired Gene Kelly to make his debut as a stage director with the musical and scoured the country for a suitable Asian – or at least, plausibly Asian-looking – cast. The musical, much lighter-hearted than Lee's novel, was profitable on Broadway and was followed by a national tour. After the release of the 1961"
"based on the 1957 novel, ""The Flower Drum Song,"" by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, which in turn was based on the San Francisco nightclub Forbidden City that was popular for military men in transit during World War II. Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted it into a musical produced on Broadway in 1958 and on film in 1961, and both starred a number of Asian American actors. Largely remembered for the hit song ""I Enjoy Being A Girl"", it would not be produced with an all-Asian American cast until a 2002 Broadway revival. In 1965, frustrated with the limited opportunities given"
"was adapted from the novel ""The Flower Drum Song"" by C. Y. Lee, and tells the culture clash encountered by a Chinese family living in San Francisco. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization allowed Hwang to significantly rework the plot, while retaining character names and songs. His 2002 version —both an homage to the original and a modern re-thinking— won him his third Tony nomination. Though ""Flower Drum Song"" is often called the first musical with an all-Asian cast, the original production had cast many non-Asians in leading roles, including Caucasians and an African-American (Juanita Hall). But the 2002 revival was"
"Hammerstein source; these additions are considered to be the most dramatic of the changes made to the musical. ""The Sweetest Sounds"", a duet Rodgers wrote himself following Hammerstein's death for the musical ""No Strings"" (1962), was used to explore the lead couple's initial thoughts and early relationship upon meeting each other in the town square, performing separately until they are united. The filmmakers found this song particularly easy to incorporate.""Falling in Love With Love"", which Rodgers wrote with lyricist Lorenz Hart for the musical ""The Boys from Syracuse"" (1938), was adapted into a song for Cinderella's stepmother, a character who"
"In an interview for ""The New York Times"", Hammerstein indicated that he wrote the first scene before leaving for London and the West End production of ""Carousel"" in mid-1950; he wrote a second scene while in the British capital. The pair had to overcome the challenge of how to represent Thai speech and music. Rodgers, who had experimented with Asian music in his short-lived 1928 musical with Lorenz Hart titled ""Chee-chee"", did not wish to use actual Thai music, which American audiences might not find accessible. Instead, he gave his music an exotic flavor, using open fifths and chords in"
"Hwang considered whether other Rodgers and Hammerstein shows could be revived and decided to work on ""Flower Drum Song"". To Chinese Americans, the musical ""represented political incorrectness incarnate. But [Hwang] had a secret soft spot for the movie version. 'It was kind of a guilty pleasure ... and one of the only big Hollywood films where you could see a lot of really good Asian actors onscreen, singing and dancing and cracking jokes.'"" Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, announced that an unnamed ""Asian playwright"" had approached him about revising ""Flower Drum Song"". Chapin called the musical"
"is difficult to resist. In the 1920s and 1930s, Rodgers and Hammerstein both became well known for creating Broadway hits with other partners. Rodgers, with Lorenz Hart, had produced a string of over two dozen musicals, including such popular successes as ""Babes in Arms"" (1937), ""The Boys from Syracuse"" (1938) and ""Pal Joey"" (1940). Some of Rodgers' work with Hart broke new ground in musical theatre: ""On Your Toes"" was the first use of ballet to sustain the plot (in the ""Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"" scene), while ""Pal Joey"" flouted Broadway tradition by presenting a knave as its hero. Hammerstein"
"Rodgers and Hart Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919, when both attended Columbia University, when asked to write an amateur club show. After writing together for several years, they produced their first successful Broadway musical, ""The Garrick Gaieties"", in 1925, which introduced their hit song, ""Manhattan"" and led to a series of successful musicals and films. They quickly became"
"who illegally comes to America in hopes of marrying a wealthy young Chinese-American man, who is already in love with a Chinatown nightclub dancer. The young man's parents are traditional Chinese and want him to marry the new Chinese immigrant, but he is hesitant until he falls in love with her. Though this musical did not achieve the popularity of the team's five most famous musicals, it was nevertheless a success, and broke new ground by using a mostly Asian cast. The 1961 film adaptation was a lavish, but much criticized, Ross Hunter production released by Universal Studios. A Broadway"
"""Dancing on the Ceiling"", ""Lover"", ""Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"", ""Mimi"", and ""Have You Met Miss Jones?"", Rodgers and Hart Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919, when both attended Columbia University, when asked to write an amateur club show. After writing together for several years, they produced their first successful Broadway musical, ""The Garrick Gaieties"", in 1925, which introduced their"
"film version, the musical was rarely produced, as it presented casting issues and fears that Asian-Americans would take offense at how they are portrayed. When it was put on the stage, lines and songs that might be offensive were often cut. The piece did not return to Broadway until 2002, when a version with a plot by playwright David Henry Hwang (but retaining most of the original songs) was presented after a successful Los Angeles run. Hwang's story retains the Chinatown setting and the inter-generational and immigrant themes, and emphasizes the romantic relationships. It received mostly poor reviews in New"
"Allegro (musical) Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr., who follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor, but is tempted by fortune and fame at a big-city hospital. After the immense successes of the first two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, ""Oklahoma!"" and ""Carousel"", the pair sought a subject for their next play. Hammerstein had long contemplated a serious work which would deal with the problems of"
"included successful revivals by the St. Louis Municipal Opera in 1961 and 1965 and revivals in the San Francisco area in 1963 and 1964, both times with Soo as Sammy Fong. The musical proved difficult to produce for amateur and school groups, however, because it requires a cast either Asian or made up as Asian. Even professional companies found it difficult to round up an entire cast of Asian singer-dancer-actors. By the late 1960s, the musical was rarely staged, and was often relegated to dinner theater productions. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which licenses the partnership's works, believes that the"
"Flower Drum Song Flower Drum Song was the eighth musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on the 1957 novel, ""The Flower Drum Song"", by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the West End and on tour. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film. After their extraordinary early successes, beginning with ""Oklahoma!"" in 1943, Rodgers and Hammerstein had written two musicals in the 1950s that did not do well and sought a new hit to revive their fortunes. Lee's novel focuses on"
"the mystery guests on episode number 298 of ""What's My Line"", which first aired on February 19, 1956; blindfolded panelist Arlene Francis was able to correctly identify them. The pair made a rare feature film appearance in MGM's 1953 production ""Main Street to Broadway"", in which Rodgers played the piano and Hammerstein sang a song they had written. They also appeared in the trailer for the film version of ""South Pacific"" in 1958. While Rodgers and Hammerstein's work contains cheerful and often uplifting songs, they departed from the comic and sentimental tone of early 20th century musicals by seriously addressing"
"to ""Allegro"". Those fellows were so mad I was fairly certain that they could make a great musical out of the Bronx telephone directory."" That project would become ""South Pacific"" and be a tremendous hit. Hischak ties the failure of ""Allegro"" to a change in the pair's style: Online sources Allegro (musical) Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr., who follows in the footsteps of his father as a"
"Favorite Things"", ""Climb Ev'ry Mountain"", ""So Long, Farewell"" and ""Sixteen Going on Seventeen"". ""Edelweiss"" was the last song that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together. Rodgers and Hammerstein re-worked the musical theatre genre. Early 20th-century musicals, except for the Princess Theatre musicals and a few important examples like Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's ""Show Boat"", were usually whimsical or farcical, and typically built around a star. Because the efforts of Rodgers and Hammerstein were so successful, many musicals that followed contained thought-provoking plots with mature themes, and in which all the aspects of the play, dance, song, and drama, were combined in"
"in ""The New York Times"". After Lamplighters Music Theatre of San Francisco planned a 2016 production, objections by the East Asian-American community prompted them to re-set the operetta in Renaissance-era Milan, replacing all references to Japan with Milan. Reviewers felt that the change resolved the issue. ""The King and I"" is a musical by Richard Rodgers (composer) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyricist). Based on the 1944 novel ""Anna and the King of Siam"" by Margaret Landon, the story illustrates the clash of Eastern and Western cultures by relaying the experiences of Anna, a British schoolteacher hired as part of the"
"viewed as too moralistic, and the Broadway run ended after nine months; it was followed by a short national tour. It had no West End production and has rarely been revived. There are two recordings of ""Allegro"", the original cast album and a studio recording released in 2009. Oscar Hammerstein II had always wanted to write a serious drama, one which would address the problems of life confronting ordinary people. By early 1946, three years after his partnership with Richard Rodgers commenced, the duo had two hits (""Oklahoma!"" and ""Carousel"") on Broadway, and success as producers of musicals others had"
"and Hammerstein, though renowned for such hits as ""Oklahoma!"", ""Carousel"", and ""South Pacific"", suffered a relative failure with the 1953 musical ""Me and Juliet"", a tale of romance among the cast and stagehands backstage at a musical. Before agreeing to do the ""Sweet Thursday"" project, the duo had considered other projects for their next work together, such as an adaptation of the film ""Saratoga Trunk"". A proposal made by attorney David Merrick to adapt a series of works by Marcel Pagnol to which Merrick held the stage rights fell through when the duo were not willing to have Merrick be"
"that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to ""Oklahoma!"""" ""After ""Oklahoma!"", Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own"". The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including ""Carousel"" (1945), ""South Pacific"" (1949), ""The King and I"" (1951) and ""The Sound of Music"" (1959). Some of"
"love. He vows to marry her after she is falsely accused by the household servants of stealing a clock, though his father forbids it. Wang struggles to understand the conflicts that have torn his household apart; his hostility toward assimilation is isolating him from his family. In the end, taking his son's advice, Wang decides not to go to the herbalist to seek a remedy for his cough, but walks to a Chinese-run Western clinic, symbolizing that he is beginning to accept American culture. Rodgers and Hammerstein, despite extraordinary early successes, such as ""Oklahoma!"", ""Carousel"" and ""South Pacific"", had suffered"
"challenge. Few songs remaining in Rodgers and Hammerstein's repertoire were deemed suitable until they re-discovered ""There's Music in You"", a little-known song from the film ""Main Street to Broadway"" (1953), in which the songwriters play themselves. Despite being covered by singer Bing Crosby, ""There's Music in You"" remained obscure for 40 years until its re-discovery. The original song lacked a bridge and was deemed inferior to Houston's trademark vocals, thus it was combined with the bridge from ""One Foot, Other Foot"" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical ""Allegro"" (1947). Additionally, samples of ""Impossible"" and the wedding march were interpolated into its"
"Me and Juliet Me and Juliet is a musical comedy by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics and book) and their sixth stage collaboration. The work tells a story of romance backstage at a long-running musical: assistant stage manager Larry woos chorus girl Jeanie behind the back of her electrician boyfriend, Bob. ""Me and Juliet"" premiered in 1953 and was not considered a success, although it ran for much of a year on Broadway and returned a small profit to its backers. Rodgers had long wanted to write a musical comedy about the cast and crew backstage at"
"in our musical there were lynchings, imprisonment, and forced labor of the blacks in the United States is irrefutable. Indeed, the United States still cannot hold its head high with regard to racism. Oscar Hammerstein's commitment to idealizing and encouraging tolerance theatrically started with his libretto to ""Show Boat"". It can be seen in his later works, many of which were set to music by Richard Rodgers. ""Carmen Jones"" is an attempt to present a modern version of the classic French opera through the experiences of African Americans during wartime, and ""South Pacific"" explores interracial marriage and prejudice. Finally, ""The"